Emergent Research

EMERGENT RESEARCH is focused on better understanding the small business sector of the US and global economy.

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The authors are Steve King and Carolyn Ockels. Steve and Carolyn are partners at Emergent Research and Senior Fellows at the Society for New Communications Research. Carolyn is leading the coworking study and Steve is a member of the project team.

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Assistant Edge

October 03, 2013

The Growing Specialization of Micro Jobs

Task Rabbit is probably the best known of the online micro job marketplaces. It is a general purpose site. By that I mean you can hire (or at least try to hire) someone to do most anything.

Also, most task rabbits are generalists who do a wide variety of micro jobs.

Most industries start with companies that provide general purpose products. As these industries grow, specialty firms emerge targeted at specific niches. The emergence of these niche oriented firms is a key indicator an industry is expanding and becoming successful.

Quiri, a retail intelligence platform using mobile crowdworkers, is an example of this type of specialization in the micro task space. Large consumer goods companies like Procter and Gamble use Quiri and their mobile, crowdsourced workforce to visit stores and check on promotions, displays, pricing and inventory availability.

"The workers range from those picking up the occasional side job earning around $100 per month to those who regularly take on tasks, often alongside other crowdsourced work like TaskRabbit tasks, earning them $500-$1,000 per month. Among the most active Quri workers, churn rates (turnover) are less than 10% per year ..."

Because Quiri is specialized, their workers also become specialized. This means they become more skilled and efficient, which means better results (at least in theory).

Quiri is yet another example of the rapidly growing number of firms that are making the hiring and managing of contingent labor more effective and efficient for both buyers and sellers of talent.

This growing freelancer support industry is a key reason the use of contingent labor is increasing.